ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 9, 1996 TAG: 9611120131
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-22 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MANUEL MENDOZA DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Stop the presses: ``Early Edition'' is the surprise hit of the new TV season.
Until Fox's super-hyped ``Millennium'' premiered, the CBS series was grabbing all the headlines as the highest-rated freshman drama of the year. It's averaging an audience of more than 10 million homes.
So what's behind this supernatural phenomenon?
For one thing, ``Early Edition'' has taken over ``Touched by an Angel's'' Saturday-night slot between ``Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' and ``Walker, Texas Ranger'' - one of the few bright nights in CBS' lineup last year. And it fits in perfectly.
Flawed yet thoroughly enjoyable, the urban fantasy pits hope against cynicism in the guise of Gary Hobson (``Homefront's'' handsome hunk Kyle Chandler), a down-on-his-luck stockbroker who suddenly begins receiving tomorrow's edition of the Chicago Sun-Times today.
Instead of cashing in on the lottery - at least until a nice twist in a recent episode - he uses the advance information to head off tragedy.
In the show's first five outings, Gary has stopped two holdups, a purse snatching and a plane crash. He has prevented the death of a little girl hit by a car. He has stopped a little girl from running away from home, a welfare mother from giving away her last nickel (worth a million dollars), a falling piano from landing on pedestrians and a hot-dog vender from stealing the mayor's dog. And he has delivered twins in an elevator.
He also has failed at least once, letting the pursuit of a mysterious blonde divert him from intervening before a water main break causes a blackout.
Gary, whose wife has left him for no apparent reason, is flanked by two sidekicks: his scheming best buddy (Fisher Stevens, best known as Michelle Pfeiffer's ex-boyfriend) and his blind co-worker (Shanesia Davis).
What makes the show work is that the producers know how to have fun with how messed up city life can be. ``Early Edition'' is light on its feet, displaying a sense of humor rare to the genre.
Rather than creating an ominous atmosphere around Gary and his exploits - a common ploy in sci-fi series such as last season's ``Strange Luck'' - the producers have him casually darting from one heroic act to another, newspaper under his arm, as if it's just an everyday job.
As with any fantasy premise, ``Early Edition'' is full of plot holes, but it's redeemed by not taking itself too seriously.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Kyle Chandler (right) stars as a down-on-his-luckby CNBstockbroker and Fisher Stevens is his best friend in ``Early
Edition,'' airing Saturday at 9 p.m. on WDBJ-Channel 7.